Every game is filled with treachery, backstabbing, outright lying, and sometimes even honest, mutually beneficial partnerships. Unfortunately, Fantasy Flight was apparently unable to get the license for the actual Dune property (which is likely in the hands of the Herbert estate or a publisher) so the story goes that the reprint will be re-themed with FFG’s own Twilight Imperium universe. This is a complete, unmitigated tragedy since the game so specifically and so organically grows from the Dune concept. However, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and reserve judgment until I see what they have in store for the game- it’s still a Lamborghini chassis, even if they stick a Volkswagen body on it, right?

The third reprint announced is 1982’s Borderlands, probably the least played and most underappreciated of these Eon games, likely because it is the most uncommon of them in terms of circulation. Set in a barbaric, post-apocalyptic future, Borderlands is actually Eon’s most abstract game despite the Frazetta-esque box art, but that being said, it’s at least as thematic as most current Eurogames and there is definitely a sense that the game mechanics describe actual actions in the game world. Eon’s stated objective in the Borderlands design was to come up with a Risk or Diplomacy styled game that could be played in two hours. It’s actually a little longer than two hours, but the result is an amazing piece of design that predicts some of the resource management elements of Settlers of Catan by over ten years and sets the stage for games like Christian Petersen’s A Game of Thrones well in advance.

Borderlands finds players controlling a group of nomadic survivors struggling for control of resource-producing territories on a very, very ugly map (that FFG will hopefully and almost assuredly redress). Each territory contains a box which holds a limited number of warriors, weapons, horses, and maybe a city. The catch is that when a region produces goods (such as coal, iron, gold, or timber) or you acquire them through trade, the goods have to be transported- via a chain of linked territories- to the location in which you want to combine them into something. Trade becomes essential to get resources into the right places and once again the classic Eon impetus for alliances of convenience comes to the fore. And of course, there’s plenty of fighting—all handled with a simple numerical system with no random elements- the Dune concepts taken to an absolute minimalist extreme. The goal is to build (or otherwise occupy) three cities, which is a pretty tricky and sometimes difficult task.

The interesting thing about Borderlands is that it’s essentially a no-luck game; everything is on the table and there is no hidden information yet it still produces a dramatic and exciting territorial control game with elements of resource production and infrastructure development, trading, deterministic combat, and logistical planning. How the game manages to accomplish this without falling into the “efficiency exercise” trap that many modern designers fall into is really a testament to how inventive and innovative Eon games were and not to mention how important direct player interaction, conflict, and negotiation are to producing a living, breathing game environment.

Borderlands had two expansions that really added a lot to the gameplay and increased the sense of civilization development, adding temples, bridges, and even zeppelins to the fray. As is typical with most expansions, some folks hate to tinker with the simplicity of the core system but I think they make a great game even better. There was a fairly credible and well-regarded computer version of the game called Lords of Conquest released back in the four-color monitor days of 1985 and published by Eon Software that’s worth seeking out if you’d like to see how it all works together.

So then, sometime in the next year or so you’ll be seeing these three games pop up at your local game shop and I can honestly tell you that even if you have just a slight interest in board gaming that these are going to be the three “must buy” events—particularly if you haven’t had a chance to try them out for yourself.

I think you’ll be impressed at the level of immersion and atmosphere that these games produce, not to mention the level of social interaction that characterizes them. With Fantasy Flight handling the reprints, we can look forward to industry-leading graphic design and component quality along with plenty of great support and almost certainly expansions, provided they sell well. Given Fantasy Flight’s track record with their heavily redeveloped Games Workshop reprints (Fury of Dracula and Warrior Knights) I do hope that their impulse to tweak, revise, and “update” the games is tempered because these games are completely modern as they were originally published. The genius of design present in all three of these titles is truly singular and deserves to be preserved so a new generation of gamers can come to appreciate them— whether the map is labeled Arrakis or not.

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .

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